Clinton kicks off Texas campaigning with swing across the border

Published 6:00 pm, Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Associated Press Writer

Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton made the first strike in suddenly important Texas Hispanic strongholds with a stop in the largest border city in the delegate rich state.

Standing before a shouting crowd of about 12,000 in El Paso Tuesday night, Clinton said she planned to barnstorm the state that she hopes will give her the decisive edge in her run for the White House.

She will continue making the rounds in Texas on Wednesday, a day after losing the so-called Potomac primaries in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia to Barack Obama. She was scheduled to spend Wednesday morning in McAllen before afternoon events in Robstown, outside Corpus Christi, and San Antonio.

Obama plans to campaign here later this month and began television advertising on Monday in English and will add Spanish-language ads later.

The Illinois senator told San Antonio television station KENS that he was planning to campaign hard in Texas, but first he has to spend time in Wisconsin, which also holds its primary this week.

"I don't know whether Sen. Clinton's just decided to write off that state. And as soon as Wisconsin is done we're going to be camping out in Texas; we're going to be spending a lot of time there."

Clinton told the crowd in El Paso she couldn't think of a better place to start her campaign in Texas than in El Paso.

"I'm tested. I'm ready. Let's make it happen," she said.

"There's a famous saying in Texas, you've all heard it: all hat and no cattle. After seven years of George Bush we need a lot less hat and a lot more cattle."

The Republican National Committee dismissed Clinton's criticism of Bush as a "desperate attempt to shift attention from her repeated primary losses."

Clinton told the city on the U.S.-Mexico border that she would reform immigration policies.

"I see an America where there is comprehensive immigration reform with a path to earned legalization," Clinton said, interrupted by raucous applause. "Of course we are going to have secure borders … and we are going to make sure employers don't exploit undocumented workers. And we will do more to help communities like El Paso get the resources they need."

In an interview with KVIA-TV in El Paso earlier, Obama made an identical promise.

The warm reception for Clinton was similar to the welcome her husband, former President Bill Clinton, received when he campaigned for re-election in El Paso in 1996 before a crowd of about 44,000.

"I think about coming here 35 years ago. I was working for the Democratic National Committee and I was going along the border, registering voters and we had the greatest time," Clinton told the crowd. "Well, here I am in Texas again and I am asking the children of those voters to vote for me."

Before arriving in El Paso, Clinton dismissed suggestions in an interview with KIII-TV in Corpus Christi that her campaign was doomed without a decisive win in Texas. Obama has swept recent primaries and caucuses, and Clinton is pinning her hopes on the major prizes of Texas and Ohio on March 4.

"You know, they've said it about me a lot. And they said it about my husband before me," Clinton told the station. "But I'm not really paying any attention to that. I am focusing on the voters of Texas, the people who want and need a president who can be ready on day one to turn the economy around, and be our commander in chief, to bring our troops home from Iraq."

At the rally, Clinton also touched on her plans for universal health care, the need to eliminate the nation's dependence on foreign oil, and her plan to raise the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour.

Those promises struck home in the city of nearly 600,000, 80 percent of whom are Hispanic and where nearly a quarter live below the poverty line. The city is also home to the sprawling Fort Bliss, and Clinton renewed her pledge to start bringing troops home from Iraq in the first 60 days of her administration.

Clinton, whose campaign suffered another blow Tuesday with the departure of deputy campaign manager Mike Henry, and Obama are in a tight race for Texas' 228 delegates. Hispanic support will be critical; Latinos could make up about half of Democratic voters on primary day.

The former first lady picked up an endorsement Tuesday from former U.S. Rep. Charlie Stenholm of Abilene, who voted for three of the four articles of impeachment against her husband.